The cart two counties ahead of the horse!

Titus wrote...

There are lessons to be learned, no question... TONS of lessons can be learned from what the Romans did and did not do over that 2,000 year span. We simply must be careful not to draw too close a comparison between the two vastly different states.

We should be careful not to draw too close a comparison? What country are you living in? My concern here is that we aren't drawing any comparisons of any kind whatsoever.

There's no intelligent discussion of what's happened in the course of man's existence prior to now within our public domain. There is only the "now" in our nation, and preferably for most, the RIGHT NOW. Instant gratification, numb to history and the world around them our country is completely detached from any resemblance of an "informed people." American idol, Kardashian, facebook - it's all these people care about. The number of those "aware" is diminishing, rapidly. I was at the gym today, listening to the History of Rome. How many IN THIS CITY, COUNTY OR STATE were doing the same? So forget Rome, let's say that's a high standard that even I didn't qualify for two weeks ago, ok. How about the news? I mean outside of ESPN. The congress is about to pass a nation-changing amnesty bill and most 18-45 year olds don't even know what amnesty means! They know Jay-Z got his NBA agents license though. I'm sick of it, fed up. I go to class with people whom are supposed to be "educated", the "cut above" at a private university and they're asking me what habeus corpus is, not what it "means", what it "is", they've never even heard the phrase, in any context, EVER. Pessimism is a gross understatement to describe what I'm feeling.

What does this all mean as we become less and less connected with the responsibilities of citizenship, less connected to our own government, and to history? I'll tell you what it means - the pool of people whom will decide our national fate shrinks with every generation. Scratch that, every ten years I'd wager. My fellow Americans are too busy posting every excruciating detail of their vacation on facebook to be bothered with educating themselves in the home, which is where it should happen. School should be where your child's beliefs are either challenged or reaffirmed - NOT DEVELOPED. But in Los Angeles County, their school district is recruiting teenagers to be taught about Obamacare, so they can in turn instruct their parents. That is the specific stated goal of the plan, not hyperbole. My God man, what is happening to us?

Look, if the vagaries of man's endeavours have taught us one thing, it is this: when history comes a knocking it starts with the most basic question of all - who's there? The world will go to those who show up. And Americans are sinfully absent.